last day in Thailand

Back in Bangkok for the... fifth time! Wow. I've arrived here by pretty much every way you can arrive here: plane, minibus, government bus, and trains from the north and south. My trip yesterday was kind of an adventure. I had bought a joint bus/train ticket from a travel agent in Krabi, which is near the south western coastal town of Ao Nang where I'd been for the last week. But things started to get sketchy around the time we left Krabi.. with the bus company shunting people off into minibuses without telling them what was going on. Then when we got to Surat Thani, the town where some other people's buses were departing from and the town nearest to the train station for my train, the bus company people basically refused to take me to the train station, doing all they could to convince me to take their overnight bus to Bangkok. But... I'd paid 600 baht for the train, which in my experience has been far more comfy for overnight trips than the bus, so I didn't want to take the bus, even if it was free... Eventually I phoned the travel agent who I bought my ticket from and he spoke to the bus people and convinced them to get me a taxi to the train station. I seriously don't know why it was such a big problem to take me there... but apparently it was. So they put me in a "taxi," a car with darkened windows and no taxi meter like almost all the taxis in bangkok.. I think all the other people on the bus (all westerners) were pretty scared for me. And that made me scared for myself, being in this city where there didn't seem to be many foreigners at night in the rain, in this car with darkened windows going who knows where.... but I made it. Thank god. I thanked the driver quite sincerely. I probably should have given him a tip, too..

Then, waiting for my train, there was the cutest puppy I've ever seen. It was fluffy and white and had a really pathetic bark but it would chase around people's feet and grab onto this woman's mop with its teeth and then get lifted off the ground by the woman. It was amazingly cute and hilarious. So I guess that kind of made up for the frightening journey.

Went back to the gigantic Chatuchak weekend market today to pick up some last souveniers. It was great to just be able to wander around. I love markets. And I'm definitely gonna miss thailand. OK, final trip update on those missing few weeks when I get home in... less than 48 hours! It's good to be going home, but I do sort of wish I could stay longer. I got complimented on my thai today when I was buying a necklace, which was cool. My new favorite phrase is "lot dai mai" which means 'can you bring it down?'... the price, that is. It's definitely a good first step in bargaining for anything, but then the people think you can really speak Thai so they start talking to you in Thai... and that's kind of hard, even though I do know all my numbers pretty well.

On the bus to Surat Thani yesterday, I was sitting next to a Texan who had just gotten in to Thailand and was considering staying for a while to try to earn some money teaching English or something.. I taught him a few thai words and tried to give him my extra phrasebook that I never used, but it was too crazy with all the weird bus company people not telling us what was going on. As we were driving into what the texan dubbed "the sketchiest bus station he's ever seen" someone in the bus remarked "all in a day of adventures in asia!" and even though the station was kinda scaring me, that made me pretty sad, to think that I was gonna have to go home the next day.. go home to find a job. Boo! Ah, but the rest of the summer will be great. But.. no worries, I'm definitely coming back here someday. You all should come with me.